Gisella
Gisella was born as part of a traveling catfolk band while they were traveling across the Florentian Grain Plains. Her mother and father pulled out of the small caravan, with her aunt and uncle stopping with them as well. (It's tradition among catfolk to settle at least long enough for a mother to give birth.) They ended up with shallow roots just outside Terruccia; the Terranetto hamlet on the plains. As things happened, they ended up staying longer with Gisella's older brother getting an apprenticeship with a local wheelwright's guild. Early Years While Nicu was learning to make wheels, and after Gisella was born, her parents got into their "normal" occupations; petite larceny and busking. Gisella learned a thing or two about fortune-telling from watching her mother; she also learned a thing about drawing attention so her father could lift purses. Not the most "appropriate" of upbringings, but a fun and interesting one none-the-less. It was during one of her mother's fortune-telling sessions that things fell apart. Her mother was distracting the mark, while her father was able to enter their house and gather a few things of value, but Gisella accidentally called her father out. The mark reacted and things got worse when the house started on fire. Gisella still completely blames herself for her mother's death. Her father incorrectly assumed that Gisella died in the fire as well, and he pulled his family out and they began wandering again, picking up with another nomad caravan after a few days. It was one of the constables that found Gisella. The events surrounding the fire where largely unknown, other than there had been several people who died including the owner, Gisella's mother, and the owner's children. Gisella was in shock from the loss of her mother, and her family leaving her behind. The constable took her in; she didn't say even a word for weeks, but eventually she came back out of her shell. Along with the secret that her parents where robbing the house when the fire started, Gisella also hid the secret that she began to have strange abilities. It was a small cat that had led her out of the fire, and she didn't know what happened to the cat that saved her, but it was another cat that brought her out of her shell; a small tuxedo cat with grey and white fur instead of the typical black and white fur; the grey seemed to have a different hue to it at different times, sometimes looking to have a green tinge, other times appearing to have a blue tinge, etc. This cat became her companion in everything, never leaving her side, even when the constable sent her to school; it would curl up under her chair and sleep. Teen Years Eventually it was Gisella's cat that got her in trouble. She had a habit of talking to it (and acting as if it talked back to her), and in one of those conversations, she said something that her step-father; the constable, was very upset about. It not only showed an unusual affinity for this cat; that was something of a problem, but it also alerted him to Gisella's growing abilities. At first he didn't say anything, but when he saw Gisella jump up to her bedroom window one night, he knew something was amiss and he confronted her. Instead of talking things through, Gisella left. Having heard stories from her family (before they left her behind), she knew of the itinerant caravans, Gisella set out to find one. She ended up hooking up with one that was leaving the Florentone Valley, heading northeast. She settled in with a Catfolk family in the caravan, charming the family's eldest son, Traijin, and twisting him to her whims. Traijin was something of an enforcer/guard for the caravan, being the strong silent type. He would do anything for her; she had him wrapped around her finger. His mother managed to teach her a few fine points that her own mother hadn't had the chance to, especially when it came to keeping a mark interested. As irony would have it, she used what she was taught to keep her claws well into her boyfriend, while also working her charms to get things from some of the other boys in the caravan. Eventually it was the mother who caught her at this. Again, Gisella ran, this time ending up back in Florentone. Recent Times Gisella has been using her skills and gifts to make life relatively comfortable for herself in Florentone. She doesn't have an issue with using a man for a place to crash, or squeezing him for a few coin, but she doesn't stay with anyone for long, and she typically gets out as soon as a relationship seems to start getting even a bit serious; she still feels guilty how she used Traijin; he was innocent and dedicated to her, and she just used him.